2020 Virtual Symposium Agenda
“Decarbonize & Take Control of Your Community’s Energy Needs”
June 5, 2020
Agenda
Login & Introductions: 8:00 – 8:50 AM
Keynote Speaker: 8:50 AM – 9:20 AM
The Honorable Mike Levin, the Congressman from California’s 49th District
Congressman Levin has been deeply involved in the energy transition since long before entering Congress.
TOPIC: Vision for a Federal Clean Energy Commitment
Session 1: 9:20 AM – 10:30 AM
Regulatory Compliance, Legal Structure, Finance, & Operations
A CCA exists in a special legal and regulatory environment and must file critical documents with the appropriate agencies to come into existence. Further, it must periodically file statements showing it is meeting requirements to secure adequate energy and capacity (resource adequacy) in the future, as well as meeting other regulatory requirements. In addition, operations require interaction with the existing utility to carry out billing. This session will cover the details of the procedures a CCA must follow to start and to be in continuing compliance, as well as the forms the organization of a CCA or JPA can take.
Speakers:
Randal Kaufman, Sales Director, Black & Veatch
TOPIC: Clean Resilient Energy Infrastructure for Zero Emission Transportation and Facility Power
Jan Pepper, Chief Executive Officer, Peninsula Clean Energy
TOPIC: Leveraging Funds to Expand the Reach of CCA Programs
Rosa Hilmarsdottir Cucicea, Vice President – Clean Energy Division Manager, River City Bank
TOPIC: Startup and Working Capital Financing for CCAs
Howard Choy, General Manager, County Office of Sustainability (retired), County of Los Angeles
TOPIC: How CCAs can Develop Customer Programs
Morning Break: 10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Session 2: 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
Procurement
The fundamental role of a CCA is to procure electricity for its members. This session will cover the complexities of the energy market and the resources available to a CCA to obtain energy and resource adequacy. Speakers from established CCAs and service companies will cover the steps a CCA needs to take to assure cost-effective supplies of energy and resource adequacy going forward.
Speakers:
Angelina Galiteva, Board of Governors, CAISO (California Independent System Operator)
TOPIC: The role of the grid in ensuring successful decarbonization
Gerald W. Braun, Chair, IRESN (Integrated Renewable Energy Systems Network)
TOPIC: Pathways to Least-Cost Clean Energy
Christine Vangelatos, Executive Director of Market Analytics, ZGlobal
TOPIC: Managing an effective procurement evaluation process
Carl Stills, Vice President, Imperial Valley Development & Storage Integration, 8minute Solar Energy
TOPIC: Hybrid Solar + Storage – Affordable Clean Energy Is Here To Stay
Michael Griswold, Owner, Ansergy WECC
TOPIC: The Art of the Hedge
Lunch Break: 12:15 PM – 1:00 PM
Session 3: 1:00 PM – 2:40 PM
Distributed Energy Resources
The new CCAs starting in Southern California have both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to obtain green power at a reasonable cost. This will be especially difficult in the evening due to the notorious “duck curve.” If CCAs continue to contract for power from natural gas plants, projections from CAISO indicate that California may actually be forced to build new fossil fuel plants, which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve if the state is to meet its decarbonization goals today and tomorrow.
Newly-forming CCAs have the opportunity to deploy a range of new forms of energy generation and management including: distributed energy resources (DER), virtual power plants, advanced community energy, and demand management. In doing so, new CCAs will have the opportunity to learn from the experience of established CCAs, which took several years to launch their community-based programs. Further, this is an area where technology is moving incredibly fast, and familiarity with the current state of the art is necessary to make financially sound decisions.
If the goal is to decarbonize every community as quickly as possible, the new CCAs should use the experiences of the existing CCAs to move rapidly to implement the best practices and technology to create local green power. Waiting to act forces the CCA to enter into long-term contracts for gas-fired capacity. This session will bring together experts from existing CCAs, regulatory bodies, government, research organizations, and industry to present the state-of-the-art in local green power and the regulatory environment governing it.
Speakers:
Lorenzo Kristov, Consultant on Electric System Policy, Structure, and Market Design
TOPIC: Local Energy Planning for Decarbonization, Resilience and Equity
John Sarter, Founder, Microgrid Development Group, SF Bay Area
TOPIC: Taming the Duck; Aggregation of stationary and mobile energy storage systems – Virtual Power Plants
JP Ross, Senior Director, Local Development, Electrification and Innovation, East Bay Community Energy
TOPIC: Developing Local Resilience
David Burdick, Executive Vice President of Business Development, TerraVerde Energy
TOPIC: Best Practices in DER Program Design & Implementation
Brian Jones, Director of Distributed Energy Resources Incentive Programs, Center for Sustainable Energy
TOPIC: PV, EVs and Energy Storage – How to Leverage Existing Incentive Programs for CCA Customers
Brian Rahman, P.E., Executive Director of Engineering, ZGlobal
TOPIC: Renewable Distributed Generation
Afternoon Break: 2:40 PM – 3:00 PM
Session 4: 3:00 PM – 4:45 PM
Programs
One major advantage of a CCA is the ability to use retained earnings to fund energy programs for the benefit of the community. Established CCAs have operated many successful programs in addition to DER programs. These have included car chargers, training programs, solar residential programs for low-income residents, energy efficiency improvements, and many other ideas that make the local community more resilient. This session will feature speakers from existing CCAs who will share best practices from successful programs, and companies who are able to execute programs for CCAs.
Speakers:
Craig Lewis, Founder and Executive Director, Clean Coalition
TOPIC: Unleashing solar on rooftops, parking lots, and parking structures throughout San Diego
Chris Sentieri, Senior Manager, EcoShift Consulting
TOPIC: Transformative Local Programming: Emerging Perspectives and Opportunities for CCAs
Jessie Denver, Manager, Distributed Energy Resources Program, East Bay Community Energy
TOPIC: Electrifying Local Government Fleets: The Role of CCAs
Stephen Gunther, Distributed Energy Resources Policy Manager, Center for Sustainable Energy
TOPIC: Optimizing Local Efforts: Opportunities to Align CCA Programs with Local Government Initiatives
Woody Hastings, Energy Program Manager, The Climate Center
TOPIC: How CCA Programs are Responding to Community Needs